The Louisburg All-Stars receive souvenir sport bags, medals and certificates from state director Carey Wrenn (red shirt), national director Buddy Burney (yellow shorts) and District 7 director Glen Mobley (black shorts) beneath the North Carolina flag after losing to Auburn at the Dixie Youth World Series. Louisburg’s District 10 director is the team’s manager, Mike Loyd (in uniform at far left). Coach Bill Bolton has his arms folded and is in uniform. (Photos courtesy of Dixon Crumpler)
The girls on the Henderson-Vance softball team at the Babe Ruth World Series aren’t the only local 12-and-under ball players who have experienced victory and loss while pursuing a national championship this month. Louisburg’s Dixie Youth All-Star team, featuring a pair of Hendersonians, finished 1-2 at the 50th anniversary Dixie Youth World Series in Auburn, Ala., last week.
One of the Henderson youths on the team, Stephen Crumpler, was dominant in pitching Louisburg, the North Carolina champion, to a 6-0 World Series-opening victory against Wayne County, Tenn., on Aug. 9.
Crumpler pitched the complete game, allowing only one hit and striking out 11 while walking three in six innings. Radar measured the 12-year-old Vance Charter School student’s fastball at 75 mph and his changeup at 50 mph, said his father, Henderson police Capt. Charles Crumpler.
Louisburg jumped in front in the first inning with an RBI groundout by Cameron Capell and never looked back. Chandler Loyd’s leadoff home run in the second inning provided all the cushion Crumpler needed.
Louisburg piled up seven hits and seven walks and benefited from four Wayne County errors. Wayne County wound up finishing second in the tournament.
Stephen Crumpler takes a pitch against Chapin, S.C., which shut down the Louisburg offense.
The North Carolina team’s pitching was almost as good the next day against Chapin, S.C., but the offense disappeared in a 1-0 loss.
Chapin’s Will Clary led off the first inning with a double, moved to third on an error by Hendersonian Cody Matthews, who otherwise played flawless defense at shortstop, and scored on a single by Lawton Burkhalter.
The South Carolina team’s only other hit was a single in the fifth inning.
Cody Matthews gets a good look at a high fastball from Chapin’s Cole Lee.
Louisburg, however, managed only two hits — singles by Capell and Loyd — and three walks against Chapin’s Cole Lee. Louisburg had base runners in each of the first five innings but stranded five men on base.
Loyd was the tough-luck losing pitcher despite giving up no earned runs in three innings. Eric Gupton pitched two shutout innings to keep Louisburg close.
That loss dropped Louisburg into an elimination game Aug. 11 against the host team, Auburn.
After Louisburg turned two singles, two walks and a double into only one run in the top of the first inning, Auburn took a 4-1 lead with one hit. Two walks and a hit batsman loaded the bases with two outs, and Jackson Norman brought all three runners home with a double. Norman scored on a passed ball.
Auburn added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, when its lone hit was a bunt single.
That set the stage for a big Louisburg rally.
An error, a single and a walk loaded the bases with no outs, and starting pitcher and cleanup hitter Dillon Joyner stepped to the plate. Joyner hit a blast over the center-field wall for a grand slam, and Louisburg was down only one run.
Crumpler, Hunter Wright and Cody Young hit consecutive singles to load the bases again with no outs. After a flyout and a strikeout, leadoff hitter Sport Williams was up for the second time in the inning. His at-bat would provide drama and controversy.
Williams fouled off two pitches, then lined a single to left. Crumpler easily scored the tying run. Coach Mike Loyd held Wright at third until the throw from the outfield sailed 18 feet up the first-base line. Wright raced home with the go-ahead run while the Auburn catcher chased down the ball, which wound up in the area of Crumpler as he returned to the dugout.
The scoreboard showed Louisburg ahead 7-6 with runners on second and third. Capell, who was 2 for 4, was due up, to be followed by Loyd (2 for 3) and Joyner (3 for 4).
Instead, “pandemonium erupted around the field after the Auburn coach spoke to one of the field officials, who then made an interference call,” Crumpler’s father wrote in an e-mail description of the game.
In the ensuing argument, Louisburg’s coach was ejected, and play was halted for 20 minutes while the tournament protest committee considered the situation. The decision was that Crumpler, who did not touch the Auburn catcher or the ball, was guilty of interference, and Wright was declared out, canceling the seventh run.
The Auburn coach also tried to get Crumpler’s run taken down, but that argument failed.
Video shot by Crumpler’s uncle Dixon Crumpler shows the catcher running after the ball to his right and Wright running home, with the pitcher belatedly moving to cover the plate. The video does not show what happened when the catcher got to the ball.
Auburn’s Neely Boston replaced Norman on the mound in the sixth inning and retired Louisburg in order. In the bottom of the inning, Boston laid down a well-placed bunt and was safe on what was ruled a throwing error by pitcher Gupton. Norman followed with a game-winning double, and Louisburg was out of the World Series.
Joyner pitched the first two innings for Louisburg. Gupton pitched the final three-plus innings and took the 7-6 loss despite allowing no earned runs.
Louisburg failed to take advantage of a 13-4 edge in hits and a 6-4 advantage in walks. The team left 11 men on base.